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mellys_reads's review
5.0
A beautifully written collection of essays peppered with a multitude of intimate aspects of the human experience that many readers will relate to. I re-read lines over and over just for the sheer pleasure of the imagery and feeling. A new favorite.
kiwialexa's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, Pandemic/Epidemic, Bullying, Death, and Dementia
booksandmo's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Infertility, and Terminal illness
mostlyshanti's review
4.0
Many essay collections feel a little bit random, like the pieces are collected by good luck, united by a single author who tries on different guises in each window into themselves. I read this while being violently seasick on a ferry (good, fun, wholesome times) and was completely struck and how much of a collection it was; these pieces of writing belong together, are completely entangled. Langstone exhibits this enormous grace where she invites you into deeply intimate spaces in her life. The little subtitle is completely correct: there is a persistent grief threaded through this collection, completely connected to hope. In some ways, the connection, the hope for a child and the loss of a parent, are a perfect matching pair. It was the specificity that moved me most of all: the idea of advertising for gandparents in the newspaper, the notes left on a tree, the dragging salt of a life on boats. I have some quibbles with certain aspects of this collection, but I'm not immune to Langstone's generousity in sharing this with the world.
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